


Faceless Enemies

by Chika_Lohaine



Series: Thiam and the Puppy Pack [1]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Blood and Violence, Brutal Murder, Established Corey Bryant/Mason Hewitt, Fights, Good Friend Corey Bryant, Good Friend Mason Hewitt, Good Theo Raeken, Graphic Description of Corpses, Insecure Liam, Liam Dunbar & Mason Hewitt Friendship, Liam is a Little Shit, M/M, Major Character Injury, Minor Injuries, Minor Original Character(s), Minor panic attacks, Nightmares, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Protective Liam, Protective Theo Raeken, Puppy Pack, Theo is a Little Shit, Torture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-16
Updated: 2020-07-20
Packaged: 2021-03-04 18:08:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 8
Words: 14,569
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25310608
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chika_Lohaine/pseuds/Chika_Lohaine
Summary: They don’t know what’it’was, but it was here. And it was here to kill.ORThe puppy pack faces off an enemy with a penchant for killing people with what they love. Fluff, angst, fights, and blood ensues.NB: This is post Anuk Ite.
Relationships: Corey Bryant/Mason Hewitt, Liam Dunbar/Theo Raeken
Series: Thiam and the Puppy Pack [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1838434
Comments: 9
Kudos: 82





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> So... This wasn't the story I was supposed to be writing but I got _so_ inspired that I just had to.  
> Any way I hope you enjoy because I am so excited about this book. It's also my first (probably only, we'll see) Teen Wolf fanfic so bare with me if the characters don't come out the way that they should.

She ran through the woods. Trying to get away from _it._ Whatever it was. She could feel her breath leaving her lungs in painful gasps. Not only was it hard to breathe, it was also hard to keep running. It was as if her legs were slowly turning to lead.

While looking behind her, she didn’t see the tree branch in front of her until it hit her in the throat. It didn’t hurt that much; it simply disorientated her a bit. She got up to run before she felt a sharp pain in her arm.

She looked and found out that she had been shot.

Fear ran straight through her straight to her bones. She picked herself up and continued running. The next sharp pain was in her shoulder. It was an arrow. It made her run faster. She was near the edge of the woods. A few more steps before she would be in the safety of civilization.

She could see people milling about near the line of houses. Almost there. Just a little more.

Another pain shot through her, but this time it was her leg. She tumbled to the ground, ending up with a mouthful of dirt. She turned onto her back to find _it_ staring at her, but not staring at her. She felt confused but terrified at the same time.

“Please, don’t kill me.” She begged, her hands up in surrender.

It did her no good as she felt a bullet go through her abdomen. She coughed up a bit of blood. Despite the fear that she had running through he mind, she remembered an advanced anatomy class that where she was shot, had no vital organs. She wasn’t going to die. Well not immediately, anyway.

An arrow went into her left side, causing her to scream. It was a muffled scream though, mainly because she was taught not to show fear in the face of an enemy.

Another bullet to her shoulder. She was probably going to die a slow and painful death.

An arrow to the stomach. _Twenty_ _minutes_ _to_ _live_ , her mind helpfully supplied.

A bullet to her leg. She wondered if it was toying with her.

Sixteen bullets and twelve arrows later and she was still alive. It knelt down until she could see its face. Fear made her stop breathing before the bullet to her head did.

Her last thought was that she had never heard of a supernatural creature that used guns and arrows to torture and kill their victims.


	2. Dreadful Beginnings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The puppy pack has a complicated case on their hands.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Honestly this chapter was supposed to be out with the previous one but I got distracted. ^_^'  
> Anyway, enjoy!

Liam didn’t know what to do this time. Scott was gone, actually almost everyone from the original group was gone. All that was left was the puppy pack and Theo – though everybody agreed that he was _part_ _of_ the puppy pack. Just because they were gone didn’t mean that the creatures that could attack were gone too.

This time, they were facing random deaths of people using their hobbies. It wouldn’t have been weird if not for the fact that being drown in nearly 600 books while in a bathroom wasn’t a common occurrence. Especially when the bathroom was in a busy restaurant.

The sheriff told them that nobody had seen any books entering the bathroom. Or any _one_ for that matter.

The said victim, Mr Jarred Hall, had been the school’s previous librarian and was known to always have his head in books. He was retired and had gone to eat out with his family the day he was killed.

The second victim was eighteen-year-old Diego Conway, the team captain for the school’s swimming team. He was found drown in his bed. The catch was that he was drown with pool water, but his bed and bedroom had no trace of it.

Liam sighed. There were six more deaths, all just as unusual as the last.

“Tired?” Theo asked as he put down the file he was looking at.

“Why can’t we have Stiles and Scott back?”

“Because they need to move on with their lives. Just imagine being stuck in Beacon Hills for the rest of your life.” Theo reasoned. Liam simply whined a little but picked up another file. They were sitting in the Stilinsky home mainly because they weren’t allowed to take the files home.

Well, to Liam’s house that is. The sheriff had been so kind to have allowed Theo to stay in his house, since Stiles was gone. Stiles only agreed when Theo had promised to make sure that the older man ate healthy. It was an arrangement that benefitted everyone, that and the fact that Stiles wanted to keep an eye on Theo despite the latter having proved himself.

“Are you hungry? I’m hungry.” Liam said as he stood up. He walked the short distance to the fridge and opened it. Only healthy food. “Don’t you guys have anything I can eat?”

“Just order pizza.” Theo called. He was interested in whatever they were facing. The creature only seemed to attack at night. “Do you think we should consult Deaton?”

“Deaton is out of town remember. We are on our own.”

“What about Mason? He seems to know a lot.”

“He’s already at the library with Corey.” Liam answered as he walked back to where Theo was sitting. He caught a glimpse of a girl’s photo in the file the older boy was holding. “How did she die?”

“Heart attack due to extreme fear. She had her eyes removed with a sculpting tool, her skin burnt with hot charcoal and her entire body stabbed with pencils. Not to mention that her fingers were sharpened.” Theo summarized.

“They were what?”

“The killer put her fingers in a sharpener and turned it until the skin and nail were removed. All ten fingers.” Theo explained. “She was killed in her best friend’s bathroom.”

“So, what’s weird about it?”

“The best friend hates art, they were no art supplies at the scene, the bathroom had no windows and was locked from the inside. They also heard her screaming but couldn’t get to her. She died within ten minutes.”

“Why does it seem like we are up against a supernatural creature that is just acting out their desires?” Liam sighed as he looked through the pizza menu.

“I’m not sure if I want to continue looking through these.” Theo said as he threw the file onto the table.

“Reminds you of the dread doctors?” Liam asked slowly. He and Theo had become closer after everything that they went through together. It was first weird, and he had to restrain himself from murdering Theo every five minutes, but after a while they both got comfortable with each other. Really, punching was down to once or twice every three weeks.

“A little. The whole torture thing.” Theo said softly. The air was a little bit awkward, Theo not being completely able to open up yet.

“Do you want an all chicken or mixed meat pizza?” Liam asked, changing the subject.

“How are you still hungry after reading all of this?” Theo laughed.

“My appetite has almost gone away, but the hungry is still there.” Liam said. He felt his cheeks heat up at the sound of Theo’s laugh.

“It’s okay to feel hungry, baby wolf. After all you _are_ still growing.” Theo continued to laugh, this time annoying Liam a bit.

“Let me just order the pizza.” Liam muttered and stood up. He made the phone call before going to the bathroom.

*

“I still wish Scott was here.” Liam muttered as they tackled the case again.

“It’s cute that you miss him and all, but you do remember that _you_ were the one who sent him away.” Theo pointed out.

“Well I didn’t think we were going to be facing something like _this_.” Liam shouted as he nearly threw the file.

“Hey, calm down baby wolf.” Theo said gently, trying to control Liam’s anger.

“We just don’t know who’ll be next. We don’t know who’s doing the killings. We don’t know why they are killing.” Liam told Theo. “We need help, but we can’t just call Scott and everybody else to come and help us.”

“We can do it on our own and if we do need help, there are people who can help us. Even if Scott and Stiles have to give us information over the phone then it’s okay.” It was this Theo that Liam didn’t mind handing out with. The Theo who thought about things rationally and stopped him from killing everyone in sight. It was the Theo who told him that fear could show itself as anger.

It was the Theo that Liam found himself anchored to.

“I guess you’re right.” Liam sighed.

“I’m always right.”

“Whatever.” Liam rolled his eyes before he yawned.

“Looks like it’s past baby wolf’s bedtime.” Theo teased as he messed up Liam’s hair. Liam swatted his hand away and looked at the files in front of him, trying to hide the blush that was making its way back on to his cheeks.

“I’m not tired.” Liam muttered. He wanted to at least get _somewhere_ with the case before he went to sleep.

“Come, Liam. I’m tired and I won’t have you work while I sleep.” Theo said as he stood up. The two had been sharing a bed ever since Stiles had told them that nobody was allowed to go into his room when he wasn’t there. It was first a little awkward, then they got used to it. The same way they got used to being around each other almost all the time.

The two climbed into bed and Theo switched off the lights. Liam closed his eyes and allowed for much needed sleep to take over.

***

Liam’s phone rang and he rolled over in bed to see who it was. It was Mason calling.

“Mase?”

“ _There’s been another death. Just inside the residential wooded area._ ”

“Okay, we are on our way.” Liam said he got out of bed, still a little groggy. Theo was sitting up, looking as if he didn’t know where he was.

“ _Liam.”_

“Yeah?” Liam yawned.

 _“It’s Monroe._ ”


	3. Double Lives

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The puppy pack do some digging while juggling their normal lives.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am too chilled for a person writing in a few hours...
> 
> Enjoy!

It took Liam and Theo five minutes to get to the scene. Corey and Mason were already waiting there. They were standing a little bit away from the scene but close enough to see what was happening.

“Is it really her?” Liam asked his best friend.

“Yeah, the sheriff confirmed it. It seems that she was hunted down.” Mason answered, taking in his best friend’s disheveled appearance. Liam looked like he needed a good nap and a long bath. At least Theo had convinced him to cut his hair a bit.

“I’m guessing by her fellow hunters.” Theo mused.

“Could be.” Corey commented. “From what I saw, it looked like she was shot with different arrow types. I’m still not sure about the bullet holes.”

“Wait, arrows and bullets?” Liam asked. Corey nodded.

“Why would they kill their leader?” Mason wondered out loud.

“Maybe they were tired of her. I know I’d be.” Theo yawned. He was here only because they said that it might be supernatural. He was about to voice his thoughts on leaving when he smelt something. The wind had changed and blown air from the crime scene in the group’s direction. He knew what that smell was, and it was making him uncomfortable.

“What’s wrong?” Liam asked, sensing Theo’s unease. His scent was a mixture of fear and confusion.

“This definitely wasn’t human.” He answered, voice low. Theo wanted to get back into his car and go home but he knew that his new friends wouldn’t let that happen.

“So, you are saying that a supernatural creature killed her?” Mason asked. “Dude, she was shot with guns and arrows.”

“Do you smell that?” Theo asked Liam and Corey. They paused to sniff the air and scrunched up their faces a bit.

“It smells like death.” Liam said. Mason folded his arms because he didn’t have werewolf senses like them.

“Don’t worry Mason. You’ll smell it when we get close.” Theo assured, his tone of voice making it sound like it was going to be a bad thing.

“We can’t get close to the scene though.” Corey pointed out. There were too many police officers walking around for them to go unnoticed, even when invisible.

“We aren’t going to this crime scene; we are going to the previous crime scenes.” Theo said as he headed for his car.

“Where’s Alec and Nolan?” Liam asked.

“Here!” They heard a voice shout. It was Alec’s as he and Nolan ran over to them. “Some of us don’t have cars.”

“Get in. We’re going to our local diner.” Theo said as he got into the car. Everyone squashed themselves into the truck and Theo drove off. Liam was glad that it was a given that he got shotgun.

*

When they reached the diner, the six of them managed to sneak into the store. It was closed until further notice but didn’t have any officers on guard. Not when there was another murder that just took place.

“What are we looking for?” Alec asked.

“Any clues. We didn’t get to search the scene ourselves and just had to trust what human eyes saw.” Liam answered.

As they got closer to the bathroom, the four supernatural creatures stopped. The smell was stronger now that they were really close to the crime scene.

“I’m guessing this is what you were talking about.” Mason said as he covered his nose. He and Nolan were closer to the bathroom door but could still smell that peculiar smell. “So, we could just find this thing by following this smell?”

“No, this isn’t how it smells.” Theo said as he walked over to the bathroom door. He pushed it open and entered. Liam and the rest of the puppy pack followed him. All the books were already removed as part of evidence.

“How did he die again?” Nolan asked as he looked around the room.

“Had a small book rolled up and shoved down his throat. Died via suffocation.” Liam answered.

“That must’ve been painful.” Corey said as he looked around the bathroom. It was empty and looked like a normal bathroom.

“Why does it smell like this? It’s not like, the body was left to rot for a month.” Alec complained.

“Are you okay?” Liam asked Theo. The boy was staring off into space, looking as if he wasn’t there at all. The only give away to how he was feeling was the fear that was rolling off him in waves. “Theo?”

“Huh?” Theo snapped out of it and looked at Liam’s concerned face.

“What’s wrong?” Liam repeated.

“Nothing. Come, let’s go.” Theo turned and left the room without another word. Liam stared after him before Mason nudged him.

“Go, we’ll give you some space.” Mason said, placing a hand on Liam’s shoulder. The latter nodded and followed Theo.

“Theo wait! What happened in there?” Liam shouted. He could smell Theo’s distress. The boy was on the verge of a panic attack.

“Just leave me alone for a bit, Liam.” Theo said as he walked without direction.

“No, I’m not going to let you walk off into the unknown where a killer might be roaming.” Liam said. He caught up to Theo and grabbed the older boy’s wrist, stopping him. He could feel Theo shaking so he did what everyone else did for him when he was scared. He hugged Theo. He hugged the slightly older boy with every emotion he had in him.

Theo broke down crying, probably unintentionally. Theo held Liam until he managed to get his breathing under control, then he tried pushing away but Liam wouldn’t let go.

“Liam.” There was a warning in Theo’s voice.

“I’m not letting go until you tell me what’s wrong.” Liam said, his voice calm.

“Liam let go.”

“Tell me what’s wrong.”

“Liam, I said let go!” Theo growled.

“Not until you stop acting like you are facing the world alone again!” Liam shouted back, still not letting go. Theo slumped into his arms.

“It’s hell. That’s what hell smells like.” Theo said.

***

“I didn’t think that’s what hell would smell like.” Mason commented. They were back at the sheriff’s house all dressed in sleepwear and holding some kind of drink. It was six in the morning and they knew that there was no chance of sleep coming, but they found comfort in at least looking the part.

“It’s not really hell. When I, um, died, I went to this place. It looked like the hospital, but there was nobody there. Sometimes it looked like the school. It changed often but it mostly looked like the hospital.” Theo explained, trying to hold down his fear by focusing on Liam’s hand in his. The younger boy had held his hand on his own.

“And it smelled like our crime scenes?” Alec asked. He looked like he was barely managed to keep himself awake.

“Yes. It’s like how Liam’s house smells like him and vice versa.” Theo tried to explain.

“So, what is a creature from there doing here?” Corey asked.

“I don’t know everything.” Theo shrugged, his usual personality coming back. It was sort of a relief to everyone else.

“It’s not like we have Kira’s sword to put it back.” Liam said.

“I don’t think that will help.” Mason said. They all looked up at him, waiting for an explanation. “It’s not like it came out with Theo, meaning that it has its own way of coming and going. Even if we send it back, it still has another way of coming back.”

“It’s like locking it in a box with the other side still open.” Liam said and Mason nodded.

“So how do we stop it?” Corey asked.

“We have to find out what it _is_ first. It’s like the hell hound from Eichen house. He wasn’t bad when we found out what he wanted.” Liam answered.

“That means we have to get looking. I’m not sure if our library has everything we need though.” Mason said.

“I’m not sure our library has _anything_ we need.” Theo corrected. He took a sip of his coffee and found that it was finished. Liam handed him his own cup of hot chocolate.

“We can start after school. Right now, I think we need to shower, eat and find clothes.” Mason said as he looked at the time. It was a little past seven and they still had to go home. They all collectively groaned, aside from Theo, and stood up.

“Not gonna drop us off?” Liam joked, his eyes a little hopeful.

“This is what I get for being the oldest in the puppy pack.” Theo groaned as he stood up. Nobody pointed out how he finally included himself in the pack.

*

“Dunbar! I know my lessons aren’t the most interesting, but I would at least like it if you payed attention.” Liam’s history teacher shouted. Liam, as well as Corey and Mason were trying not to fall asleep. It didn’t help that the teacher had a boring voice or that it was the last period of the day.

“Sorry.” Liam smiled sheepishly and the lesson continued. He wondered how Theo was doing, knowing the older male was probably not asleep.

When the bell ran, Liam was the first out of the class, Mason and Corey following behind. Alec and Nolan were already waiting with Theo in his car.

“How did you two get here so fast?” Liam asked as he jumped into the car.

“Free period.” Alec explained.

“So, I’m guessing you’re well rested.” Mason said sarcastically as he looked at Theo. The male looked extremely tired.

“Not even. Stilinsky brought me Monroe’s file.”

“And how is it?” Corey asked softly.

“Bad. She was shot with a different weapon thirty-six times, the thirty seventh shot killing her.” Theo summarized.

“How? Are you telling me that this creature can just materialize a gun or bow and arrow every time he wants to?” Alec asked.

“As if it being from hell wasn’t enough.” Nolan muttered.

“Where are we going?” Mason asked, realizing they weren’t going to any of their houses.

“Deaton’s. I asked Scott if we could use the information the emissary had.” Theo replied. They pulled up outside the vet and Theo led them to the back door. He fished out a key from his pocket and opened the door.

“Please tell me you didn’t steal that.” Mason said.

“I asked Scott to see Deaton’s files on the supernatural just to end up breaking into the place.” Theo rolled his eyes and let them in. They all went to Deaton’s office and got themselves comfortable. There were so many books and files to look through that the group didn’t even notice the sun had gone down until Liam’s mother texted asking if he was coming home for dinner.

“We’ve been here for so long.” Alec whined. Liam told his mother to make food for the rest of the puppy pack.

“I’m surprised my eyes are still open.” Mason said from where he was sitting. He had taken the job of looking through the bestiary for answers and his eyes hurt from looking at a computer screen for that long.

“Same. I think my back and butt have gone numb.” Corey said as he tried to stand up. Theo simply groaned but made no move to stand.

“Need help?” Nolan asked as he offered the boy a hand. Theo took it, a grateful look on his face.

“My mom says that there’s enough food for all of us if we want.” Liam said as Alec helped him up. He could feel his back clicking as he stood up. “Is a werewolf supposed to feel like this?”

“We haven’t slept for a few days.” Theo pointed out. The group neatly filed the information that they needed to still look at and headed out the back door. Theo locked up behind them as the group squished themselves into his car.

The drive to Liam’s house was silent. Everybody was beyond exhausted and had no interest in talking to each other. When they arrived, the group of zombies filed into the house and greeted Liam’s mother, their voices monotone.

“What happened to you guys?” Mrs. Geyer asked.

“Studying for a test. We really don’t know as much as we thought.” Mason lied.

“Even Theo?” The woman cast a glance in the oldest boy’s direction.

“He offered to help me. Since my marks aren’t the best and all.” Liam spoke up. Mrs. Geyer simply nodded and served the boys their meal. They were as hungry as they were tired, so the food was finished within in minutes before the boys stood up to clear away their plates. Corey stayed seated to keep the female company.

“Don’t worry about it, boys. Get home and get some sleep. I can deal with this myself.” Mrs. Geyer waved them off. They simply took the plates to the kitchen before they disappeared to Liam’s room.

“Ask your mom if we can sleep over.” Mason said. “I don’t think Theo is up for the drive.”

The two of them looked at the boy in question, he looked like he was barely holding himself up right.

“Mom can they sleep over?” Liam said as he poked his head downstairs. “Theo is too tired to drive them home.”

“Okay, but you must– Never mind.” His mother cut herself off. There was no reason to tell them to go to sleep early. They couldn’t even keep their eyes open during dinner.

“Thanks.” Liam went back up the stairs and found them sprawled out on the floor of his room, Theo on his bed. “How are we going to sleep?”

“I’ll take the guest with Corey and one more person. You can stay here with Theo and the other person.” Mason reasoned. The group nodded and Alec decided to stay in Liam’s room, mainly because he was too tired to go to the next room over.

The puppy pack didn’t bother themselves with night routines and simply climbed into bed. Some where at the back of Liam’s mind, he remembered that there was a spare mattress in the storeroom.

*

“Liam.” Alec pushed the boy who was sleeping in the middle of the bed.

“Hm?” Liam answered, half wake.

“I think Theo is having a nightmare.” The other werewolf said. This news woke Liam up and he caught a whiff of the fear that was in the air.

“Could you sleep in the guest bedroom?” Liam said as he shook Theo awake. “There is a mattress in the closet right before you reached the bedroom and there are some extra blankets.”

“Okay.” Alec said before he left the room.

“Theo, wake up.” Liam soothed. He had learnt from his mother how to sooth someone who was having a nightmare. She said that her younger sister used to have them when they were kids.

Theo woke up with a start and Liam wrapped his arms around the boy.

“Liam?” Theo’s voice croaked.

“Yes, it’s me. You’re okay. It was just a dream.” Liam pulled Theo until they were lying down again. He gently stroked the boy’s hair.

“Did I wake you up?” Theo asked after a while, the air clear and his heart calm.

“No, Alec did. He’s a really light sleeper after what happened to his family and all.” Liam explained.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to.”

“Don’t apologize. It wasn’t your fault.” Liam argued “Nightmares happen to everyone.”

“You’ve never had them.” Theo pointed out.

“I have had them, even to the point where I was too scared to go to school.” Liam told him honestly.

“What were they about?”

“The berserkers. I was worried that they were going to come for me.” Liam took a breath. “They were so much bigger and stronger than me that I got scared. I thought that we would never be able to defeat them.”

Theo was quiet as he thought about this information. He felt better knowing that he wasn’t the only one who had nightmares and that Liam had been there to help him with his own.

“Thank you.” Theo said after a while.

“Thank you for?”

“For not judging me and for sharing your own fears.” Theo buried his head deeper in the blanket, not worried about whether Liam could hear him or not.

“You’re welcome, T.” The nickname slipped off Liam’s tongue before he could stop it.

“Good night, baby wolf.” Theo said.

“Good night, T.”


	4. Murder Capital

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The puppy pack finally puts the pieces together. Theo opens up to Liam

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I wrote the second last chapter before I wrote the chapter after this one before I wrote this one. My brain has been all over the place and that's why this chapter took so long to come out. Sorry if there are major mistakes, I haven't slept yet.
> 
> Anyway, enjoy!

_“The sixteenth victim in the space of three weeks has been found. Citizens are in panic and wondering if they are going to be next. The curfew that has been set in place has been–”_ Liam turned off the tv and sighed. The puppy pack was back in the sheriff’s house _still_ trying to figure out the case.

“More murders and we are still nowhere near finding the killer.” Mason sighed.

“Well in order to find the murder we simply have to think like it.” Theo said.

“He’s been watching a lot of murder mysteries lately.” Liam explained when he saw the looks on his friends’ faces.

“Isn’t this case enough murder for you?” Alec asked.

“This case is real, the ones in my show aren’t.” Theo pointed out.

“I just remembered that we have a history test tomorrow.” Corey said as he flipped through his bag. He was looking for an extra notebook when he saw his history textbook. Mason and Liam groaned.

“I’m guessing you two also have tests?” Theo asked the other two boys and they nodded. It was the period of time in the year when teachers started giving out tests and assignments to boost their students’ marks.

“An assignment.” Nolan corrected.

“We don’t have time to worry about school when people are being killed in such gruesome ways.” Liam complained.

“When we solve this case, school will still be waiting for you.” Theo pointed out. “Do your work and study, I’ll keep doing research.”

“Thanks Theo.” Corey said. Theo simply shrugged and picked up a case file. The other boys left him in the living room while they went to other places to go and study. Theo grabbed a random notebook and a pen and jotted some things down before he grabbed his car keys and checked the time. It was three in the afternoon.

“I’m going out for a bit.” Theo shouted. Not waiting for a response, he left the house. His first destination was Mr. Hall’s (first victim) house. After speaking to his daughter for a while, Theo headed to the school to talk to the swimming team.

“Hey, are you part of the swimming team?” Theo asked a girl who was standing at the school’s pool.

“Yeah I am. Are you here you join or talk about Diego?” She asked. The girl looked tired and so did the rest of the team. Some were swimming laps half heartedly while others were putting way too much effort for it to be normal.

“I wanted to pay my respects. I heard you set up a little memorial for him.” Theo said softly.

“Oh, I’ll show you where it is.” The girl said.

“I’m Theo by the way.”

“Lisa. Do you go here?” Lisa asked as they walked towards the swimming trophy cabinet.

“No, I only came here a few times to play lacrosse matches. I’m friends with quite a few people from the school though.” Theo lied smoothly.

“It’s nice that you came to pay your respects even though you don’t go to this school.”

“Well I believe that nobody deserves to die, especially not like that.”

“He really loved swimming and was proud to be our swimming captain. He got the position by beating our last year captain’s record by six seconds. Which is quite a great feat.”

“I can imagine. He would have had every reason to be proud of himself.”

“I sometimes thought he was a little too proud though, but that was who he was. His pride helped motivate us to do better.” She sniffed and Theo handed her some tissue from his pocket. He excused himself and headed to the next place. It was the victim’s best friend’s place.

What was strange about this case was that the best friend lost both the victim and her boyfriend.

Theo knocked on the door and waited.

“What do you want?” The victim’s best friend asked. She really looked like some one who had lost a boyfriend and a best friend.

“I’m here from the Beacon Gazette. I was wondering if you would let me do a feature on your friend Jane Ruston and your boyfriend Mark Prone?”

“Why?”

“We are doing a section to honor our loved ones that we lost. I just need to ask you for your opinion on who they were as people.” Theo said smoothly, a soft smile on his face. The girl thought for a while before she let him in.

It took her three minutes to start crying and another five to calm down.

“I don’t even know why I’m saying such nice things about them when they were sleeping with each other.” She shouted. “My best friend and my boyfriend were fucking behind my back.”

“Nobody deserves to go through that.” Theo comforted her. He left the apartment thirty minutes later with her phone number written in his notebook.

*

Theo stopped by a bakery to grab some treats for the puppy pack before he headed home. He knew that he would have to stop by the sheriff’s office later on to drop of a healthy dinner, so he went to the grocery store, picked up a few things for dinner for all of them _then_ headed back to the house.

“I’m back and I brought donuts.” Theo shouted as he walked through the door. He could hear movement before the boys came running down the stairs. Liam took the box from Theo’s hands and placed it on the kitchen counter while Theo unpacked the rest of the groceries.

“What’s the occasion?” Liam asked, taking a bite out of a donut. Mason reached in for his own and so did the other members.

“There’s no occasion. I was out so I decided to pick some stuff up.” Theo shrugged. He went to go and get the laptop that was lying on the living room floor and placed it on the kitchen counter. “Help me search something?”

“What do you want to search?” Corey asked. His hands were the cleanest out of the groups. Theo stopped to think for a second before he pulled out the ingredients for tonight’s meal. He had learnt to cook while he was busy waiting for the puppy pack to come back from school and now he was actually good at it.

“Seven deadly sins. Search that on the bestiary.” Theo told him.

“Seven deadly sins? What does that have to do with anything?” Liam asked, leaning over Corey shoulder.

“I went out researching the victims and found out that they weren’t as clean as they appeared.” Theo said.

“What do you mean?” Mason asked, as he also leaned over his boyfriend’s shoulder. Alec and Nolan simply watched this interaction as they ate their donuts.

“The old librarian? He was an alcoholic.” Theo said. He pulled out his notebook and opened it to the page where he had taken notes on the victims. Liam picked up the book.

“And that’s gluttony. The swimmer was prideful, so pride. And the artist and her best friend’s boyfriend were sleeping with each other. Lust.” Liam read. “Whose phone number is this?”

“Oh, the best friend.” Theo dismissed. Mason saw something flash in Liam’s eyes before it was gone.

“Why do you have it?”

“Don’t get jealous baby wolf, lest you become the target of that creature.” Theo said. He took the notebook from Liam’s hands, ripped out the girl’s phone number and tore it to shreds before throwing the pieces in the dustbin.

“I found it.” Corey said and the all turned to face the boy. “Dímios. It’s Greek for executioner. Deals out punishment based on the jury’s verdict. Crimes fall under the seven deadly sins including murder.”

“It kills it’s victims with what they do most often in life as a form of torture and repentance. Murderers are killed by the ripping out of their hearts.” Mason continued. The group heard Theo hiss as he cut his finger while chopping the vegetables. “The Dímios lives in purgatory, occasionally coming to earth to deal with sinners. Apparently it paralyses its victims before showing them their sins.”

“Who’s the jury?” Alec asked.

“It doesn’t really say.” Corey answered as he scanned the page. There wasn’t much information anyway.

“We are the jury.” Theo said.

“How do you know that?” Mason asked.

“When I was talking to the victims’ friends and family, they all seemed to believe that the victims had sinned. The daughter of Mr. Hall said that she knew he was an alcoholic and even his mother had talked to him about drinking too much. The swim team member said that she knew that he was too proud but often dismissed it because it was what motivated the team. And the best friend knew that the other two victims were sleeping with each other. Just for the sex.”

“You really did your research.” Nolan commented quietly.

“What can I say? I’m too smart for my own good.” Theo smirked before throwing the things he chopped into a pot and placing it on the stove. “Now go back to studying, breaks over.”

“Yes, mom.” Liam rolled his eyes and smiled a bit.

*

Two hours later, Theo was on his way to the sheriff’s office with a hot meal packed in a lunch bag.

“Hey, Deputy Christian. Just here to drop off the sheriff’s meal.” Theo greeted the young woman behind the desk. She nodded her head and let him go through. Theo was no Stiles. He hadn’t grown up in the sheriff’s office or gotten tutored in math by the deputies, but he was polite. He greeted the deputies that he passed and occasionally made conversation.

Deputy Christian didn’t talk to the boy often, but she could see that he went through more than he was showing. His eyes had been dim from the moment she met him and were beginning to light up. She wasn’t sure if it was because her was living with the sheriff as if he were his nephew or something or if it was because he was hanging around some good kids here in Beacon Hills.

Whatever the reason, she was kind of glad, nobody deserved to look as if they had been to hell and back. Especially not at that age.

“Brought you dinner and good news.” Theo said as he entered Stilinsky’s office.

“Please tell me it’s not vegan anything?” The sheriff said as he placed his files to the side. Theo placed the bag on the table as Jordan Parrish walked into the office and closed the door.

“I heard you have good news. Is it about the case?” The young deputy asked. Theo nodded.

“We found out what’s been killing the people. All we have to do is find a way to stop it.” Theo told them.

“How did you find out?” Stilinsky asked.

“I went to talk to the victims’ family and friends.” Theo smiled sheepishly.

“You shouldn’t be doing that.” The older man scolded.

“I know, but I found some clues when I was talking to them.” Theo then explained what he had found out and how it tied to the creature and the case.

“So, this is worse than we expected?” Parrish said.

“Better actually. I was thinking we were dealing with a ghost rider type of enemy or some one out for revenge. Some thing as predictable as this should be much easier to stop.” Theo shrugged. The sheriff opened his lunch bag and his mouth began to water.

“This looks like heaven and it has meat. Are you sure it’s healthy?” He took out his cutlery from his desk and opened the lunch box, moaning at the smell of the food.

“It doesn’t have to be vegan or vegetarian to be healthy, trust me, I checked.” Theo said as he looked at his watch. “I better go before the curfew time.”

“Thanks for dinner.” The sheriff said as Parrish saw Theo out.

“You should make me one too, next time.” The deputy said. Theo simply smiled.

“What is that smell? It’s making my mouth water.” One of the deputies said as Theo left. The indirect and direct praise made Theo’s heart swell with happiness. He was glad to be finally doing something the made people happy instead of sad or angry.

***

“Three more people were killed last night.” Liam said as Theo picked him up from school.

“Hello to you too.” Theo muttered. Liam was about to throw a snide remark at the boy when he noticed how dead Theo looked. Liam had gone home with Mason the night before, so he hadn’t seen Theo in the morning.

“What happened to you?” Liam asked.

“Where’s the rest of your puppy pack?” Theo asked instead.

“They went to do research and Alec has some extra classes.” Liam answered. “Why does it look like you haven’t slept in days?”

“Why aren’t you researching with them?”

“Theo!”

“Won’t you give it a rest, baby wolf. I’m not in the mood.” Theo said. His voice was tired and held none of Theo’s usually snarky attitude or sarcasm. Liam didn’t know what to say so he said nothing until Theo stopped outside his house. “You’re home, what are you still doing in my car?”

“Come inside with me.” Liam said.

“What?” Theo looked at him as if he just revealed that he was the Dímios.

“Come inside, even if it’s just for ten minutes.” Liam repeated. Theo looked at him for a minute longer before he sighed and cut the engine. Liam waited until Theo was out of the car before he also got out. “My parents aren’t home so do you want anything to eat?”

“A coffee would be great.” Theo muttered, his arms folded across his chest.

“I’m banned from coffee, but we have hot chocolate?” Liam said as they walked to the kitchen. Theo groaned but didn’t reject the offer, so Liam put the kettle on and got out the cups.

“I’m leaving after I finish drinking this.” Theo said as Liam put the hot chocolate in front of him. The younger boy had added mini marshmallows and milk to the mixture. “What am I, five?”

“There is no other way hot chocolate should be had.” Liam said. He picked up his cup and headed to his room, knowing that Theo would follow automatically. When they got to the room, Liam sat on his bed and pulled out his laptop. “Let’s do some research before you go.”

“Fine.” Theo sighed as he sat down next to Liam. The younger boy made sure that they were both comfortable before he started ‘researching’.

It took only ten minutes for Theo to fall asleep.

*

“You’re an asshole.” Theo groaned as he rolled over in the bed. He realized that Liam had tricked him into falling asleep but wouldn’t admit that he wasn’t even mad.

“You looked like you needed to sleep.” Liam shrugged, still sitting in the same position he was in when Theo had fallen asleep.

“What time is it?”

“Seven, it’s past curfew so you can’t go home tonight.” Liam told him.

“Why does it feel like you don’t want me to go?” Theo asked, not even trying to move.

“Do you _want_ to go?” Liam asked instead. Theo had nothing to say. “Why don’t you want to sleep?”

“And that’s my cue to leave.” Theo said as he got out of bed. Liam quickly put his laptop to the side and grabbed Theo’s wrist.

“Stay, please. I promise I won’t ask you any questions.” Liam said as he looked up at the older boy. Theo looked at him for a good minute before sighing and getting back into bed. Liam sat back properly.

“So, you admit that you don’t want me to go.” Theo said after a while.

“I’m worried. You cut yourself while we where talking about murderers getting their hearts ripped out, so I thought that you thought of yourself as a murderer. I’m not sure how that whole jury thing works and if it works when we judge ourselves but I kind of got worried about you being alone in the Stiles’ house.” Liam rambled. “We know that the Dímios only kills when it’s prey is alone so…”

“Tara ripped out my heart.” Theo said.

“Your sister?”

“Yeah, while I was in purgatory. She ripped out my heart then I would die and wake up in a morgue. Then the whole thing would repeat itself over and over again. That’s what my nightmares are about.” Theo admitted. Liam put the laptop to the side and slid into the blankets. He laid facing Theo.

“Thank you for telling me this.” Liam whispered. The two laid there, staring at each other before Liam’s phone rang, ruining the moment. “Yes?”

“ _I found out how the Dímios gets out of purgatory.”_ Mason said. Liam put his phone on loudspeaker even though he didn’t need to.

“How?” Theo asked.

 _“Lay lines. When we first locked you away and when we let you out, we stabbed the sword into a lay line fissure. It allowed for a rift to be opened for you to travel between here and purgatory.”_ Mason continued.

 _“We aren’t sure exactly how a particular rift is linked with a purgatory reality, but we know that the Dímios is using a rift to travel between our world and his.”_ Corey continued.

“What is a purgatory reality?” Liam asked.

 _“It’s like a person’s own personal hell. To get into someone else’s purgatory reality probably won’t be easy.”_ Corey explained.

 _“Getting out might be harder.”_ Mason finished. _“We find the lay line fissure; we find the rift.”_

“This just got harder.” Liam groaned after they hung up. “How am I supposed to deal with all of this? How are we going to stop it? I’m not like Scott or Stiles or even Lydia.”

“Don’t say that.” Theo said softly. “You’re the beta of a true alpha, if you can’t do it, who can? And you’ve got the rest of the puppy pack, we’ll find a way.”


	5. Match to the Death

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The puppy pack goes toe to toe against the Dímios.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was reading through this and I'm kind of annoyed at the plot holes, but hey, what did I expect from working backwards. I tried to patch it up as best as I could but one sentence in the previous chapter had to be added. It doesn't make a huge difference so don't worry about it.  
> -Chika

“The mayor wants to lift the curfew.” Stilinsky told Theo and Liam over a rare breakfast he got to have at home. He normally never ate with Stiles because his son was almost always late for school. For some reason, Theo was always up early, and by extension Liam too.

“Why? The killer is still out there.” Liam asked, his mouth full of toast.

“Nobody has been killed in a week.” The sheriff sighed. “It’s out of my hands.”

“That means we are going to have to work harder.” Liam put down his toast and reached for his tea. He would have preferred coffee, but Theo said IED never went well with drinking coffee and being a werewolf. Liam disagreed but he still avoided drinking coffee anyway.

“We all know that someone’s going to end up dying then.” Theo muttered.

“The most we can do is hope that people are still too scared to come out of their homes. We can also tell people to stay in groups of three of more.” The sheriff told them the best solution he could come up with as the sheriff.

“That’s good enough for now.” Liam sighed. The group sat in silence for a while before the sheriff got up to leave for work.

“Get yourself to school.” He told Liam. “And get some sleep, Theo.”

Theo rolled his eyes and smiled a bit. He never thought that _Stiles’_ dad would be the one to treat him like he was his own family. Theo guessed that that was just how the sheriff was. Caring.

“Going to drop me off today?” Liam broke the silence.

“Do you _want_ to walk to school?” Theo countered. Liam rolled his eyes and stood up to put the dishes in the sink. He knew that Theo would be back to wash them before he did what ever he did when the puppy pack was at school.

“Let’s go.” Liam said as he grabbed his school bag. Theo stood up and grabbed his car keys and the two left the house.

*

“Would that even work?” Liam asked Mason at lunch. The puppy pack, minus Theo, were all sitting together trying to come up with a plan to kill or at least get rid of the Dímios. “Can we even trust the lay lines?”

“We have no choice. And the lay lines don’t really change.” Mason said.

“We found out that the moon has an affect on them and it’s going to be a full moon in a few days. The rift will become steadier.” Alec added.

“So, we only have a few days?” Nolan whined a bit. The bell rang and they packed up. Nolan and Alec went to their lockers while Liam, Mason and Corey headed to their next class.

“I need your help on something.” Liam said to the couple. “It’s about Theo.”

“Finally making your move?” Mason asked teasingly.

“What? No.” Liam flushed. “I meant with Tara and the plan.”

“Oh.” Mason’s smile fell.

“I think we might have something.” Corey said. “We did a lot of reading about purgatory.”

As they approached the class, something caught Liam’s attention.

“Uh guys, I think we may have a problem.” The beta said to his friends. The three of them stood in front of a poster that advertised a party the school was throwing the following day in light of the recent lifting of curfew.

***

“It’s not like we can convince them to cancel it.” Liam said as he paced behind his living room couch where Theo was sprawled. It was the day of the party and the group still hadn’t figured out a way to keep everybody safe. The Dímios could show up if it wanted.

“It’s already to late for them to do that.” Mason sighed.

“Baby wolf, sit down before you drive me up the wall.” Theo said, his attention on his phone.

“Well, it be nice if you even _tried_ to help.” Liam said, sitting down anyway. He sat himself on the floor in front of Theo.

“Maybe we can use the party to our advantage.” Theo said.

“How?” Alec asked, looking over at the boy.

“We know that the Dímios goes to where people need judgement. A high school party is going to be filled with judgement and there _will_ be people walking around on their own.” Theo explained. “Plus, it’s easier to protect people when they are all in the same place.”

“Why does this just remind me of the ghost riders all over again?” Corey asked. Liam just groaned.

“It’s better than nothing. We are working with what we’ve got and maybe we can save a life in the process.” Theo shrugged.

“Let’s go to a high school party then.” Nolan sighed.

***

“I’m just going to go to the bathroom, real quick.” Mary told her friends. They nodded and let her go, knowing full well that she wasn’t headed to the bathroom. Alice scowled. To her, Mary was just a slut. She spent her time at the gym either training or seducing boys. Alice wondered if Jennifer even knew that Mary was going to see her boyfriend.

Mary met James in the library. Since there was a party going on, nobody would go to the library.

“Hey baby.” Her friend’s boyfriend said as he kissed her lips.

“Hey.” Mary laughed. She kissed him back and allowed for him to kiss his way down her neck. She was mid moan when she opened her eyes and found a figure facing them. “What the fuck?”

“What?” James stopped his ministrations and looked in the direction she was looking in. “Hey dude, we don’t need you to watch us have sex.”

“Yeah, we’re not into voyeurs.” Mary added, annoyed that they had been interrupted. It wasn’t until a kettlebell flew in their direction that the two understood what was happening.

James was into sports, not weightlifting so he knew that the killer wasn’t there for him. He turned and ran towards the library doors.

“Where are you going, you asshole?” Mary shouted as she tried following him. The library doors slammed shout just as James ran through them, shutting Mary in with the Dímios.

*

Theo tried concentrating on any sound that didn’t belong. He already knew that the Dímios killed its victims in an isolated area, so that made it easier to listen for out of place screaming. He was just about to give up when he picked up on something. It sounded like a girl screaming.

“I got something.” Theo said into his phone the second Liam picked up.

_“Where?”_

“I don’t know yet, but it’s definitely not a scream of pleasure.” Theo listened in more and heard the sound of books falling. “Library.”

 _“On our way.”_ Came the response before the call cut. Theo jumped off the hood of his car and ran into the school building.

*

Mary screamed and barely managed to dodge the weight plate that was thrown her way. Her right leg was already broken, and she was 100% sure that she was going to die in her school’s library. If it were any other day, she would have complained that death by weight plate was not an appealing way to die.

Liam and Nolan arrived before anybody else. They had to break down the door in order to get into the library, which was weird because their library didn’t lock.

“Help me.” Mary shout before a dumbbell hit her other leg. Liam attacked the Dímios, pushing it away from the girl while Nolan ran to the girl. Mason, Alec, Corey, and Theo ran into the library just as Nolan was trying to drag Mary away from the Dímios.

The puppy pack then launched a joint attack on the creature. Their hits proved futile as the Dímios was only interested in Mary. It smacked them into nearby bookshelves as if they were flies.

“Nolan get her out of here.” Mason shouted as he threw his car keys to boy. Nolan caught the keys and lifted Mary up. Her cries filled the room as her broken legs were shifted before she passed out.

Nolan carried her out of the room as fast as he could. Because its target was gone, the Dímios turned to the puppy pack members. Mason was turned away when the Dímios attacked him first. He didn’t have time to process anything before he was sent flying through the air towards the check out desk. At the last second, Theo caught him, sending them both to the ground, but otherwise unharmed.

“Mason!” Liam and Corey shouted at the same time.

“Focus on your attacks!” Theo shouted. “He’s fine.”

Theo rolled Mason off of him before he went to go and join in the fight. Before, the creature didn’t seem as interested in anyone until Theo landed a kick to its chest. It wasn’t the kick that caught the monster’s attention but the person who tried to kick it.

In the Dímios’ eyes, Theo was a murderer, and according to its nature, it was meant to kill murderers. So, the Dímios turned its attention to Theo and tried to kill him. Liam and Alec focused on short range attacks while Corey and Mason slowed it down by throwing books and gym equipment into its path. They tried to ignore the blood that would coat their fingers every time they picked up the gym equipment.

The Dímios grabbed Liam by the wrist and swung him so that he knocked into Alec and Theo, who were standing too close, before letting go of him. This sent Liam flying into a bookshelf, knocking a few of them down like dominos. Theo managed to get to his feet and dodge the Dímios before he tripped over a book.

Theo rolled his eyes at the irony when he saw the title of the book he had tripped over. _Conquering the Fear of Death_ by Spiros Zodhiates.

The Dímios picked Theo up, hands on either side of his ribs before it threw him to the ground. The boy was sure that the death grip the creature had on his sides probably broke some ribs. Before he could even move, the Dímios had him by the throat and was lifting him off his feet again.

Theo had faced many enemies in his life. He had been experimented on by the Dread Doctors for crying out loud. But never before had he faced an enemy like this. Within seconds he was slammed on to the ground and held there by his throat. Theo looked into the Dímios’ face and saw his worst nightmare.

He understood what Mason had meant when he said that the Dímios shows you your sins. He watched himself killing his sister. He watched himself allowing for people to be caught and tortured by the doctors, even helping sometimes. He watched all the people he killed, all the people he betrayed, all the people he hurt.

The worst one was watching himself betray and hurt Liam. It hurt more now that he cared about the beta. Theo was so shocked by what he saw that he didn’t do anything to stop the creature’s hand from hovering over his chest to take out his heart. This was the punishment for murder after all.

The hand moved as if in slow motion. It inched forward towards where his heart was. No, it wasn’t his heart. It was Tara’s heart. Some where at the back of Theo’s mind, he wondered if when he died would he go back to hell or back to purgatory where Tara was most likely waiting for him.

Centimeters from his chest the hand was stopped. And it was stopped by none other than Liam motherfucking Dunbar. The beta was clearly using all his strength to stop Theo from getting his heart ripped out of his chest again.

Alec and Corey pushed the creature away from Liam and Theo, buying them time.

“Get up, Theo.” Liam growled as he and Mason pulled the older boy to his feet. Theo was too weak to properly stand so he simply leaned heavily on the two teens. “Theo, what’s wrong?”

“It’s the Dímios. It really does paralyze its victims.” Theo muttered. Liam could see that the boy was in no shape to fight.

“How long until sunrise?” Liam shouted. He leaned Theo against the library wall.

“Ten minutes.” Corey responded.

“Then let’s keep him busy for ten minutes.” Liam growled, eyes glowing yellow.

“Don’t look at its face!” Theo shouted.

“Got it!”

Liam and Alec attacked the creature one at a time, more focused on stalling. Its goal was to get to Theo, so it didn’t pay much attention to them. When the sun began to rise, the Dímios froze, then it melted into the floor without a trace. Liam ran over to where Theo was.

“You did it, baby wolf.” Theo smiled softly. He didn’t feel like he was going to die but he was still in a lot of pain. He could feel his broken ribs shifting every time he breathed.

“Why aren’t you healing?” Liam asked, panic in his voice. Theo’s bruises and cuts were still very present, even the ones sustained at the beginning of the fight. “None of your wounds are healing. Mason, help.”

“Hey, baby wolf, I’m fine. I can feel them healing. A little slowly, but they are still healing.” Theo lied. He didn’t have to worry about Liam hearing his heartbeat because it was still beating a little fast from the fight and Liam was too distressed to think about listening for it. And Theo was a very good liar.

“We’re getting you to Deaton.” Mason said when he saw how the older boy looked. Corey and Alec grimaced when they arrived. Maybe Theo looked worse than he felt.

“What ever you say.” Theo waved his hand limply. “Stop stressing, Liam. I’m going to end up suffocating in the smell of all your worry.”

“If you weren’t hurt, I would punch you.” Liam said. He grasped Theo’s hand and started to take his pain away. Before he could do much though, Theo pulled his hand back.

“I’m okay.”

“Not when you are feeling that much pain.” Liam countered, looking even sadder than before, if it was possible. Theo just sighed and gave his hand back to the beta.

“Thanks for saving me, Theo.” Mason spoke up after a while.

“We’re a team.” Theo shrugged as best as he could with his broken ribs. Mason didn’t know what to say so he just nodded. A few months ago, Theo wouldn’t have said those words so readily.

“We’re going to have to call the sheriff.” Corey said as he looked around the library. The others also looked around. The library was barely holding itself together, with some shelves leaning on each other. There were books and broken pieces of wood everywhere. Corey spotted the gym equipment and some blood.

“Let’s get Theo out of here first.” Liam said. The group looked back at the boy and found him passed out. “He better not die on me.”

Alec and Liam lifted Theo up and carried him to his car. Mason and Corey stayed behind to make sure that everything that tied them to the incident was removed. They knew the sheriff and Deputy Parrish could cover it up, but they didn’t want to burden them anymore than they already had.

“Liam.” Mason called his best friend when he and Corey were done.

“Yeah?”

“I think we should start the plan now.” Mason said. “We don’t know if it’s going to come for him tonight and if he’s going to survive it.”

Liam looked towards the truck. Mason didn’t have to be a were-anything to know that his friend was worried and scared.

“We’ll get him to Deaton in time.” Corey told the boy. Liam nodded looked down at his feet before looking up again, a hint of determination in his eyes.

“Okay. Let’s do this.”

***

Liam stayed behind at the school while the rest went to the animal clinic. Deaton, who had – by luck – been in town since the previous week, looked at Theo before calling Melissa.

“Does he really need a doctor?” Mason asked.

“Yeah isn’t he supernatural?” Alec added.

“He is, but it seems as if the Dímios has managed to slow down his healing abilities.” Deaton explained as he and Melissa tried helping Theo.

“His injuries aren’t the worst, but I would have preferred to have seen him in the hospital.” Melissa said.

“Liam won’t be happy to hear that.” Corey said as he held his boyfriend’s hand. Alec’s phone started to ring. It was Nolan.

“How is she?” Alec asked, the three of them leaving the room.

“She’s going to be okay. Both her legs are broken and so are her ribs and they say she has a concussion but she’s fine.” Nolan answered. “I’m not sure if she will remember what happened to her but the sheriff sent deputies to protect her.”

“That’s great. Can you come to the animal clinic?” Mason said.

“Why? Is everything okay?” Nolan asked. The last time he had seen his friends, they were being thrown against the library shelves.

“Theo is injured, but we need to focus on coming up with a plan of attack.”

“I’ll be there in a bit.”


	6. Final Stand

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The puppy pack take the fight to the Dímios. Theo faces off his sister.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A little short, but hey, what can a person do? One more chapter left!

Theo woke up groggy and in pain. He knew that he was almost healed, but the lingering pain from the attack was still present.

“Glad to see that you are still alive.” Deaton’s smiling face came into view. They seemed to be in Scott’s room. Theo tried to sit up and Deaton helped him. “You might be in more pain considering the fact that you took a beating from a creature that was made to inflict damage.”

“Where’s everybody?” Theo croaked out. Deaton offered him a glass of water.

“Downstairs, except for Liam. He has gone to set the plan in motion.” Deaton explained. “Since you are awake now, I will take my leave. This creature is causing more havoc than you know.”

Deaton helped Theo down the stairs where everyone was waiting for him and then left.

“We thought you were going to die.” Mason joked awkwardly.

“I’m more resilient than you think.” Theo smiled.

“What happened to you? You simply let it try to kill you.” Alec asked.

“Not really. I looked into its face. It was like looking at a screen.” Theo explained. “Then I watched it play back my sins. That’s why a person freezes long before they actually die.”

“This thing is a really monster.” Nolan muttered and the group silently agreed.

“So, you think that we can defeat it? I heard Liam already started on a plan.” Theo asked as a change of topic.

“No, but I think we can trap it back where it comes from.” Mason said.

“Okay, let’s hear it.” Theo shrugged. The other boys exchanged looks. Theo’s heart dropped. “What now?”

“We need your help.” Nolan said.

“Well, what do you think I’m trying to fucking do?” Theo asked, partially annoyed.

“What he means is that we need you to connect with the rift and by connecting with the rift, you connect to the place where Tara kept torturing you.” Mason said. Corey elbowed him at the word ‘torturing’.

“Why?” Theo asked, his eyes narrowed.

“We think we could trap it in its own reality by changing the connection points from the Dímios’ reality to Tara’s reality, meaning that it won’t be able to exit on its own. Especially not in when it has no way of coming back.” Nolan continued.

“Then when you come back through, we close it.” Alec finished.

“So, I have to go in there alone?” Theo asked, a tiny hint of fear in his voice.

“No, you don’t even have to go in. You simply need to stand by the opening. Then we will push the Dímios in while you call out to your sister before jumping out of the way.” Mason shook his head. “None of us are going in and if it’s any consolation, Liam offered to stand with you.”

“Great, just fucking great.” Theo muttered. “And there’s no other way?”

“We are stumped for ideas and pressed for time.” Corey shrugged.

“Fine, I’ll do it.” Theo sighed. “When and where are we doing it?”

“Tonight, at Eichen House. The lay lines are going to be perfectly aligned with the full moon for thirty minutes. That’s our window of opportunity.” Mason said as he pulled out the map.

“Why that hell hole?” Theo questioned.

“Eichen House has been know for its strong connection to the supernatural and where it sits on strong lay lines.” Nolan answered. “Lydia told us this.”

“A hell hole with a portal to hell, how original.” Theo rolled his eyes. “So, how are we getting in?”

“Liam’s getting us in, with the help of Mrs. McCall and the sheriff.” Corey answered. “We will use my power to get through.”

“Sounds like a plan.” Theo said as they filled him in on the rest of the plan. Once they were done, they went to go and prepare themselves for the journey. Theo was scared but knowing that Liam – and the rest of the puppy pack – was there for him, made him feel so much better. He knew that he could trust them, just as how they were trusting him. Still, there was a little voice at the back of his mind that said they were going to leave him behind, trapped with Tara and the Dímios for eternity.

***

“Is everyone ready?” Sheriff Stilinsky asked as he walked into the McCall house. They all nodded, nerves clearly displayed on their faces.

“Where’s Liam?” Theo asked. They still hadn’t told him exactly _how_ Liam was going to get in.

“He’s gone ahead with Melissa.” The older man replied. Theo simply nodded. He could trust them. He had to trust them. They all got into the sheriff’s cruiser and began the drive to the asylum.

“Welcome to Eichen House, boys.” The sheriff said, his voice grave. He didn’t want them to do this, but he knew that there was no other way. They had their roles to play and so did he. He stopped the car outside the big gates and got out. The puppy pack followed. They all linked hands before Corey made them invisible.

“Glad you could make it Sheriff.” A tall burly man held out his hand for the sheriff to shake.

“Glad I could come. Is Melissa here yet?”

“Here she comes.” As if on cue, Melissa’s car pulled up in front of Eichen’s big gates. When she got out of the car, Liam followed. Theo wanted to go and ask what was happening, but he knew not to ruin their plan.

“Sorry, I’m late. We had to fill out some discharge forms.” Melissa laughed and shook the orderly’s hand.

“No problem. Why don’t you three come on in? There’s a lot that I need to show you.” They all followed him into the asylum. “Why don’t you have Liam here wait in the car, or would he like to see his future home?”

“I’ll stay.” Liam said. Theo finally understood their plan and he was not happy. Liam’s head perked up at the smell of Theo’s anger. “We all have to make sacrifices, T.”

Liam said it low enough for the adults not to hear but he knew that Theo’s supernatural hearing picked it up, if the diminishing anger was anything to go by.

While they were taking the tour, Liam asked to sit down for a bit, saying that the sedatives in his system were still affecting him. Melissa said it was probably because of the medication they had put him on and the orderly smiled and let him rest in a waiting room. The tour of Eichen house would take the thirty minutes that they needed. Melissa and the sheriff knew to keep him occupied for as long as possible. On their way to the waiting room, Theo had pick pocketed a keycard from one of the passing orderlies.

“We’ll see you in around thirty minutes then, son.” The orderly said before they walked away. The puppy pack waited five minutes before they appeared.

“Did you get the keycard?” Liam asked. Theo held it up and smiled.

“How do we get it to come to us?” Liam asked. He knew he was the bait; Mason just didn’t tell him how.

“We make you angry and we make people think you are nothing but angry.” Mason said.

“Let’s go to the rift first.” Corey said. The group followed the lay line map all the way to the room that they were looking for. It wasn’t even a room. It was an empty corridor that seemed to blink in and out of existence.

“Okay then, make me angry.” Liam said.

“We didn’t tell you about the full plan because we didn’t trust you to keep it a secret.” Corey said quietly.

“Is that true?” Liam asked the group but mainly Mason.

“Well, you tend to blurt things out when you are nervous.” Mason admitted.

“It makes it a little inconvenient.” Nolan said.

“Guys don’t stand to close. He might use his werewolf powers to knock you into next week.” Theo said to Nolan and Mason. Everything everyone else had said made Liam a little angry but hearing that come out of Theo’s mouth hurt.

“So, you think I’m going to hurt my best friend and pack mate?”

“Well you have done worse, Liam.” Theo shrugged. He knew that he was the only one who could get Liam angry to the point where it was considered a sin. He needed Liam to punch him.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Do you not remember all those times I had to knock you out to prevent you from killing people?” Theo asked calmly.

“You said it was because that’s how I knew to control my fear.”

“And it was, but Liam, you’re a ticking time bomb.” Theo shrugged. That was the final push Liam needed before he threw himself at Theo knocking them both to the ground. He punched the older boy twice before the smell of death hit his nose.

It was here. Nolan, Mason, and Corey ducked to one side while Alec took another. He had to be ready to push the creature in to the rift.

It was exactly how Theo had described it. Its face, or lack thereof, was the scariest part. When Corey used his powers, he could see Liam’s past ‘sins’ playing on its face, as if it was a movie. He understood why there was always a stench of fear at the scene.

Liam and Theo quickly stood up and faced their enemy, looking at its neck rather than its face. Nobody expected it to launch a lacrosse ball in Liam’s direction and the boy was pulled out of the way by Theo.

They kept walking backwards and dodging the incoming flurry of balls, unable to escape some of them. Liam was sure that if he wasn’t a werewolf, his bones would be broken. When the Dímios was in line with the rift/corridor Alec stepped forward and pushed the creature in to the rift. Due to its lack of awareness of non-sinners it stumbled a bit, falling into the rift. Before it could come back, Theo stuck his hand into the rift and called out for his sister.

He pulled his hand back within the same second, not wanting anything to drag him inside. But before he could get far, a hand came out and grabbed on to his ankle. Theo had no time to process anything before he was being dragged into the rift.

He had a flashback of the time Tara had first dragged him into the rift. The fear that coursed through his veins then was the fear that he felt now, only ten times worse. He knew what was going to happen to him now that she got her hands on him again.

What he didn’t expect was for another hand to grab his own. He had held Liam’s hand often enough to be able to tell how it felt without seeing the boy. The two fell through the rift and into a hallway. They both immediately recognized the hospital. Theo turned to look at Liam and saw the exit behind them.

“Let’s go Liam.” Theo said, his voice shaking. Before he could even get far, his chest was pierced by his older sister’s hand and she ripped out his (her) heart. Liam watched as Theo collapsed to the floor before his body disappeared.

It took him a minute to process what was happening. If Liam remembered Theo’s nightmares correctly, the older male would appear in the morgue again before having to challenge Tara again. Liam was beginning to wonder how he would get to the morgue before he realized that there was only one corridor. Theo had been so close to the exit all those years, but he just couldn’t make it past its guard, Tara.

Liam ran towards the neon flashing sign that said morgue. Before he reached there, he watched Theo exit the morgue Tara on his tail.

“Theo!” The beta cried as he watched his anchor’s heart get ripped out again. He couldn’t imagine what Theo was feeling. It was five minutes before the scene repeated itself, this time with Liam closer to Theo than before.

“Liam help.” Theo shouted as he ran. They reached each out to each other, Tara not far behind as her hand reached out to Theo.


	7. For Love

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Liam saves the day.

“No!” Liam shouted as he went to stand in front of Theo, in between the scared boy and his dead sister. “You can’t have his heart.”

“Liam let her. It’s hers anyway. I don’t want her to hurt you.” Theo’s shaky voice came from behind him.

“No. It’s not hers. It’s mine.” Liam said to the boy behind him. He then turned to face the girl. “Theo’s heart belongs to me. So, you can’t have it.”

Tara looked confused for a moment, as if she wasn’t sure what to do. If the heart wasn’t in Theo’s possession anymore, it meant that she had no claim over it. By the laws of purgatory, she had no purpose anymore, and so no reason to exist.

Therefore, Tara started fading away. She looked down at her body before she looked at Theo and Liam for one last time. Then she was gone. Forever. Theo let out a sob of relief and nearly clasped to the ground if it wasn’t for Liam turning to hug him.

“Let’s get out of here.” Liam said, a little shaky himself. Theo simply nodded and let Liam lead him. He mind was flooded with relief that he didn’t notice that Liam was rushing him a bit. Not until he tripped over his own feet.

“Liam, why are we running?” Theo asked. Then he noticed it, the walls were crumbling. “What’s going on?”

“Without Tara here to keep this ‘reality’ alive, it’s starting to disappear. If we don’t get out of here, then we could disappear too.” Liam explained as they ran to the entrance they came in through. The boys linked hands and jumped through, a few seconds before the rift collapsed.

The rest of the puppy pack was there to pull them to safety. They all hugged each other, grateful to be alive and reunited.

“We don’t have time to celebrate. The tour is ending soon.” Alec said as his watched beeped. The group stood up on shaky legs and rushed back to the waiting room. They were just on time before the orderly, Melissa and Stilinsky appeared. Liam looked a little roughed up and had dried tear tracks on his face, but otherwise looked okay.

“Are you okay, son?” The orderly asked.

“I was wondering if I could reject the offer of staying here. I really feel bad about what happened.” Liam said, his head hung low.

“How about this, we talk to your parents a little more on what kind of punishments you can receive, and you don’t have to come here.” The sheriff said. Liam nodded his head. The sheriff turned to the orderly. “Well it seems that the boy might not be staying here after all.”

“Sorry for taking your time.” Liam apologized.

“No worry.” The orderly shrugged. “Maybe next time.”

The three (eight) of them left Eichen House and breathed a sigh of relief once they were safely outside.

“Did everything go well?” Melissa asked when the other boys appeared.

“Yep, it did.” Alec said. They all smiled and nodded.

“Let’s get you home then.” The sheriff said. Everyone nodded and split themselves into the two adults’ cars. Melissa was going to take Corey, Mason, and Alec while Sheriff Stilinsky was going to take Theo, Liam, and Nolan.

“Thank you for dropping me off.” Nolan said as he got out of the car. The two other boys simply waved.

“Going home, Liam?” The sheriff asked.

“I think I’ll stay over please.” Liam said, his head leaning on Theo’s shoulder. He was more focused on listening to Theo’s heartbeat than focusing on the drive. After all, Theo’s heart belonged to him.

They were dropped off while the older man went back to the station. Since the two boys were tired, they opted to just go to sleep. They had, in any case, experienced the longest thirty minutes of their lives.

“Want to shower?” Theo asked as they walked up the stairs.

“Together?” Liam held Theo’s hand in his.

“That would be nice.” Theo said as the two headed for the bathroom.

“Why not?” Liam shrugged.

***

Theo woke up feeling better than he had felt in his whole life. His cheeks heated up when he remembered showering with Liam the night before. The two hadn’t thought much about it, minds still reeling from the fight with the Dímios _and_ Tara.

Tara.

Theo’s sister was finally gone. He knew that he would still have nightmares about her, but it felt nice knowing that there wasn’t a special place in purgatory waiting for him. He sighed and rolled over, noticing that the bed was empty.

Theo got out of bed and could smell the bacon that was being fried in the kitchen. A quick check of the time told him that it was late morning.

“Morning sleeping beauty.” Liam said as Theo stepped into the kitchen.

“Glad to know you acknowledge my looks.” Theo said, sitting down on a chair by the kitchen counter.

“How did you sleep?” Liam slid the bacon off the spatula on to the plate where the other bacon strips were.

“Why do I feel like you are trying to make this a domestic scene?” Theo asked as he stole a strip.

“Do you _want_ it to be a domestic scene?” Liam asked, ignoring the missing bacon. “I was just asking because of what happened last night. The whole thing with Tara.”

“I’m fine Liam. Honestly, you worry _way_ too much for someone your age.” Theo sighed. They lapsed into a comfortable silence as Theo watched Liam make breakfast. It didn’t take long for him to realize that the boy was cooking for the puppy pack. He loved bacon but that amount of the fatty meat was _way_ too much for two people. Even with their were-powers. Theo silently wondered were Liam learnt how to cook.

The puppy pack arrived just as Liam finished the last pancake. It was as if they knew how long it would take for Liam to prepare the food.

“I brought juice like you asked.” Mason said as he walked through the door. They never bothered with knocking anymore and Theo was sure that Stiles would throw a fit if he found out how much his house had been taken over by the puppy pack.

“Do we not have any in the fridge?” Theo asked. He was pretty sure that he had bought some the last time he went shopping.

“Thanks, Mase. Just put in there.” Liam pointed to the dining room table. “We do but I don’t think it’s going to be enough.”

“After all you _are_ trying to feed a group of _teenage weres_.” Alec pointed out. Theo shook his head as he stood up to move the food to the table. When everything was moved, the group sat down and started eating.

“Am I the only one who woke up feeling like I was on cloud nine?” Nolan asked.

“No, you are not. I never thought that going to sleep without worries felt so good.” Corey said and they all agreed.

“It’s nice to just meet up to relax and not be trying to research one thing or another.” Alec said.

“Tell me about it. I think I might end up memorizing the bestiary off by heart.” Liam groaned. He stood up to make himself a cup of hot chocolate. “Coffee Theo?”

“Why don’t you offer me coffee? I’m your best friend.” Mason complained.

“You have your own boyfriend, Mase, you don’t need me to do it for you.” Liam reminded his friend. “Theo?”

“Hot chocolate.” The older boy said. Liam nodded and got started on the drinks. He placed the cup in front of Theo and the boy simply stared at the cup.

“What? Did you change your mind?” Liam asked, confused.

“There’s only one way to have hot chocolate.” Theo reminded him. It took Liam a second before he remembered the conversation he had with Theo in his parents’ kitchen.

“Give me a second.” Liam rummaged through the cupboards before he found what he was looking for. A pack of mini marshmallows. He went back to the table and poured some of the spongy treats into Theo’s cup, earning a smile from the older boy.

The rest of the puppy pack were speechless by what they just saw. They weren’t sure if they were more shocked by Liam’s willingness to wait on Theo or Theo’s fluffiness.

Something clicked in Nolan’s mind.

“Wait, did Liam just call Theo his boyfriend?” He asked. Theo choked on his drink and Liam went red in the face.

“I don’t remember saying anything like that.” Liam defended himself quickly.

“You said that Mason has his own boyfriend meaning that you were making for your boyfriend.” Alec told him.

“I didn’t mean it like that.” Liam mumbled into his food.

“But are you guys dating? I don’t think that I’ve ever seen Theo so… soft.” Mason said.

“Just because I wanted marshmallows in my hot chocolate?” Theo rolled his eyes as he wiped his mouth with a napkin.

“ _Because_ you wanted hot chocolate _and_ marshmallows.”

“No, we aren’t dating.” Theo said.

“You should.” Corey said and everyone turned to look at him. “It’s not like we aren’t all thinking it and they already behave like they are dating.”

“He has a point. You already do couple things.” Alec shrugged.

“Couple things like what?” Liam asked.

“The only way to drink hot chocolate.” Alec quoted.

“And the fact that you two always sit together in the car. If it’s Theo car the Liam, you ride shotgun. If it’s Mason’s car the you sit next to Theo at the back.” Nolan pointed out. “And you still go home with Theo even if he lives in the opposite direction of your house.”

“You also sleep over a lot and when Theo goes over to your place, you share a bed. Even if the guest room is open.” Mason added.

“Okay, okay, we get it. We should date.” Liam held up his hands. He looked at Theo who was calmly sipping his hot chocolate, a content look on his face. “Aren’t you going to say anything?”

“Why? I agree with everything they said.” Theo shrugged.

“So, you think we should date too?” Liam asked, his heart beating fast.

“Liam.” Theo said calmly. “Last night you told my sister than she couldn’t rip out my heart because it belongs to you. I think it’s a little too late to reconsider us dating.”

“Liam said what?” Mason looked between the two.

“So, I guess we are dating then.” Liam ignored his best friend, a smiled forming on his face. His cheeks were a bright crimson, but he didn’t care. He and Theo were finally together.

“We’re dating.” Theo said. He took Liam’s hand in his own. “On that note, how did you know how to stop Tara?”

“Mason helped me.”

“It was actually a running theory.” Mason said sheepishly. “When Corey and I were researching on purgatory, we came across information that said that some people had their own personal hell waiting for them. Like you did.”

“This hell is normally created by something that they did in their lives, whether it was killing someone – in Theo’s case – or doing something bad like setting a building on fire. The personal hell would then take on the characteristic of what they did.” Corey said.

“So, if the scenario of Tara taking your heart was impossible then it would mean that she and the personal hell would cease to exist.” Mason completed.

“But how did you know what the scenario was that needed to be stopped?” Theo asked, not really understanding.

“We left that to Liam. I didn’t even know that Tara had been doing that to you.” Mason shrugged. Theo turned to his now boyfriend.

“Mase said that we had to stop the scenario from happening, so I simply thought that if we made Tara believe that the heart wasn’t yours anymore, she would have to stop. She wanted back what she thought was hers but if you didn’t have it then there was nothing she could do.” Liam tried to explain his thinking.

“Makes sense. A little reckless but makes sense.” Theo said, then he turned to the rest of the table. “Thanks for coming up with a plan to stop Tara for me.”

“We’re a team.” Mason smiled. Theo blinked in shock before smiling back.

“He’s my boyfriend. You have your own.” Corey said as he wrapped an arm around Mason, making the group laugh.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so glad that I am done with the story. I'm surprised it took such a short time for me to write the story especially since I had exams and stuff. I might write little short stories to add to this one, but if I do - and there is no saying that I will - they will be standalones. The only reason for this is because I had many fluffy scenarios that I didn't get to put into the book.
> 
> If I still need to explain something, don't hesitate to ask, I love interacting with my readers. Anyway, I have another work to finish, I'll see you when I see you.  
> -Chika


	8. Announcement!!!

One shot chapters on the story are up! They will be added to the Thiam and the Puppy Pack series. Read them if you wish. They also might come out in random order and some of them might be about the other members of the puppy pack, I don't know yet. 

You are also free to request something in line with this story and I'll try to write it. I don't do smut by the way... You can reach me on Tumblr at haruthecriminologist if you have any requests. 


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